Denting the affordable housing void | “Steinman Foundation pledges $1.5 million toward 64 affordable apartments on College Avenue” – Lancaster Online

Obituaries of local note | Sister Agatha Marie Groft, ASC •  Richard J. Beaner

Making spirits bright for seniors | “A pandemic can’t stop the Columbia-Lancaster Christmas Ladies. Helen Bechtold and Sis Luzader will offer a free Christmas lunch for seniors age 55 and older on Christmas Day, Friday, Dec. 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The lunch will be available for pickup only at the Columbia Borough Fire Department, 10th and Manor streets, Columbia. Reservations are required for the lunch, and the reservation deadline is Thursday, Dec. 17.” – The Merchandiser

The cavalier comment | the pretender in the White House uttered back in the beginning of August when Trump Coronavirus deaths in the US passed the 100,000 mark (now that number’s nearing 300,000) stings more and more.

Yep, “It is what it is!” and New York state’s Attorney General has put forward this theory: She thinks he’ll pull a Nixon and resign before the end of his term. While the DIC is setting plans in place to pardon all the criminal family and friends, he cannot pardon himself. As the madman plays out the next phase scenarios (setting a plan to run again in 2024), also in the scenarios is spending time in prison and getting to meet lots of new friends in there.

Thank you | As this pandemic continues to rage through this nation, it’s again time to reflect and say “thank you” to the real people who make our communities work. We say Thank You to all the people we know and don’t know who are doing really essential work each day:

• first responders
• grocery and convenience store workers
• postal workers
• people working in nursing homes, personal care homes and retirement homes
• people working in hospitals and health care
• the people who deliver heating oil and other essentials
• truck drivers
• cooks, servers and everyone in restaurants and food services
• school crossing guards
• people serving in the military
• and countless others in so many roles that keep the nation going during incredibly difficult circumstances.

Not on the list | and we don’t think they belong on the list are the “elected public servants” undeservingly raking in the big bucks and perks in Harrisburg and DC. And in some cases, that applies to county-level “elected public servants” who effectively do nothing positive nor essential. Heck, we’ve even got a slew of them from Lancaster County who waste public funds supporting insurrection by pursuing the folly of the DIC in DC. These “non-essentials” actually condemned the people they are elected to serve by essentially accusing local people who work in local polling places of being inept or carrying out fraudulent actions to sway elections.

Why’s it so hard | to get people to take COVID-19 seriously? – Futurity